East Coast Railway Express

IJER © Serials Publications 13(3), 2016: 733-744 ISSN: 0972-9380

EAST COAST RAILWAY EXPRESS – AN ODYSSEY Ipseeta Satpathy1, B. C. M. Patnaik2 and Sourav Mohanty3

Abstract: Indian Railways have galloped across a lot of horizons in this 21st century today leaving behind the age-old process and the dilapidated recycled resources, which were used earlier. The most incorrigible and unfathomable query is in spite of being equipped with resources, it still lacks the support of provision of good services and infrastructure to commuters? The unblurred answer is Indian Railways time and again have been a victim of political fiasco. The present paper looks at East Coast Railway in terms of obstacles faced by commuters and abridgement of infrastructure. Ground reality has to be seen by the ongoing government so as to provide with alternate solutions to renovate the existing infrastructure and improving the services because ultimately it is the commuters who are being the sufferers of this quandary. Keywords: Railway, Commuter, Perception and Facilities.

AN OVERVIEW Indian Railway is the lifeline for economic development and inclusive growth of our country. It has been providing uninterrupted services to the nation since ages and plays a pivotal role in the day-to-day life of common Indian. Almost 70% of passengers travel through railways only. Except for hilly areas where no rail transport facilities are available, people use road transport. Railways also play an important medium for transportation of goods. A major chunk of budget is being spent for the development and maintenance of Indian Railways. Recently Prime Minister Modi inaugurated Vaisno Devi Express. This is a welcome step for increasing connectivity. At present we are thinking about hi-tech/speed trains, but at the same time it is also important to understand the present status of 1 2

3

Professor, School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. E-mail: [email protected] Associate Professor, School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. E-mail: [email protected] Research Scholar, School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha E-mail: [email protected]

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Dr. Ipseeta Satpathy D.Litt, Dr. B.C.M. Patnaik and Mr. Sourav Mohanty

infrastructure and facilities provided to the general commuters. Since independence the connectivity to the new areas has increased. It is also a fact that railways transformed from steam engine-diesel-electric engine. The fact remains that electric engines are not operating in all corners of India, except where a convertible WAP-4 type of engine is used in remote areas of transportation. The point of discussion through this research paper is whether we are able to provide basic minimum facilities to the commuters? The answer is a big no. The present paper is developed after commuting a number of times in the route from Kolkata to Vishakhapatnam. We are sure that the impending situation is not much different in the rest of the country. The Rajdhanis and other special superfast premium trains operate under a different scenario. In this article, we are considering only express and semi-fast trains. MAJOR DEBACLES OF RAILWAYS Debacles have been overflowing in Indian Railways. Track maintenance is a big issue in the Eastern belt where the districts of Odisha have got bad railway tracks leading to voluptuous accidents. There is a demarcation of speed of trains. Tracks need to be doubled as in some parts of Eastern India, where one train has to make a halt in its unscheduled station and wait till the opposite coming train passes through the track. It has been quite often noticed people travel without tickets in railways. The Indian Railways have to bear a whopping 5 crore rupees loss every year. Human errors, neglectedness, lack of maintenance of tracks in uneven areas results in severe train accidents. Lack of latest technology to reckon, obsolete facilities which needs remodeling like rolling technology, some services need to be outsourced for better providing facilities. Some of the long route trains do not have a pantry car and the passengers get into a lot of trouble for food. Even if the food is cooked and provided in trains, they are of very low quality as sanitation is not maintained to the full extent. No alert system is present whenever a train reaches any platform of the station. Safety feature has taken a back roll in railways whenever it comes to robbery, theft,etc.Low in employee productivity is a constant debacle for Indian railways as it has been reducing in manpower since 1992-93 i.e. 1% annually of the total turnover. Doubly the Indian Railways has to share revenues and meet the social obligations which are difficult to comply in practical life situations. TRANSFORMATION OF RAILWAYS (MAKE IN INDIA) Make in India has been an innovative stand which was introduced by Government of India in September 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The idea was to make a way for the FDI to invest in it and make India a global hub for manufacturing products, thereby providing some jobs to the ones, who are unemployed. The economy was raised as India overtook United States of America and China by receiving a massive US$63 billion in FDI in 2015. Railways are also on the agenda of 25 economy factors to

East Coast Railway Express–An Odyssey

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receive FDI except for space, defence, news media. The aim of Make in India project is to change the railways which has drastically taken downturn not only in its infrastructure but also not been able to provide minimum requirements to commuters Transformation is on cards but fullest of implementation will take time to occur in all the trains. The use of bio-vacuum toilets have already been used in Rajdhani and Shatabdi’s, catered to be replaced by 2020 towards all trains. Arrangement of food was done through e-catering but it lacks the full schedule of all the trains and it cannot deliver after ten o’clock in the night. Those long route trains which do not have pantrycar attached to them can use the food supplied to the train by third party agents. The good things these agents are world class companies like MTR Food, ITC are entangled with it. IRCTC has had a tie up for supplying pizza’s through Dominos but it is restricted to few stations. The old bandwagons and coaches of premium superfast trains, Shatabdi, Rajdhani’s were changed but full change of coaches on all other trains will take time. Recently Spanish coaches were bought in by Make in India from a firm Talgo which could run at 200 km/hr. as it has good driving dynamics, consumes 30 % less energy by lowering the power consumption bill of the railways. The major difficult it is only implemented between Delhi and Mumbai, allocating to all the east zone routes would take a lot of time. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Indian railways are one of the longest and highly elongated transportation systems in the world; which is nearly 200 years old and called as ‘Backbone of the nation’ (Raghuram and Rachna Gangwar, 2000). Considered to be crate and stepping-stone to success is the reason for presence in the socioecomic map of India (Da.Coasta, 1987). Ticket reservation has been a menace as it has to be done in proper time and if they forego any temporal or permanent changes can lead to somewhat of a change in the operating services. (John Gabriel and Suresh Babu, 2005). Customer satisfaction is key and yields a valuable result when it comes to serving and hospitality in luxury premium trains. (Arvind Brame, 2007). Plethora of factors were considered out of a study conducted by a series of consultant that it is the competitive perception, attitude and behavioral way in serving commuters in production process of railways. (Shone, 1999). Significance of railways integrated with change in transportation facilities and services provided by stations, trains was studied by an organization named-Steer Davies Gleave of London (Gleave, S.D, 2000). With competitive market, the world is changing fast in style and in dynamics, commuters have changed their preferences with the up gradation of technology; the demand is more for ultra modern facilities in railways. (Kelley and Storey, 2000). Diversity in 360 degrees had been defined categorically to point the passengers using train as a means of public transport. Huge diversity of the country leads to change in taste; change in preferences and sometimes these changes are not fulfilled leading to what is being called dissatisfaction of commuters. (Patil, Pranay, 2012).

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Objectives of the Study •

To study the problems faced by the commuters on boarding the train.

•

To study the existing facilities and problems faced at small railway stations.

Scope of the Study The study is conducted on the East Coast Railway and the respondents are the commuters , the vendors and the general public. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY The present study is based on the primary data. For this purpose we personally commuted in the various express and passenger trains from Howrah to Vishakhapatnam over a period of 4 months.In support of the objective of the study there is a primary research through questionnaire administration method in the field through stratified random sampling method covering the stations from Howrah (West Bengal) to Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh). This route covers three states i.e West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh (Simandhra). In total 700 questionnaires distributed and out of which 384 responses received. Table 1 The components of sample size Category

Questions distributed

Responses received

Male

%

Female

%

Passengers Visitors to the station (local people) Vendors

480 120 100

252 77 55

148 39 33

59 51 60

104 38 22

41 49 40

Total

700

384

220

57

164

43

Respondents’ Perception with Regard to the Various Attributes of Railway Services To measure the perception level of the participants with regard to railway services the various attributes categorised during travel and facilities at railway stations. The various attributes related to during travel are- unhygienic condition in compartments, shortage of drinking water, unhygienic condition in toilets, shortage of water in toilets, unscheduled stoppages, no security personal during journey, unauthorised entry of local vendors, unauthorised entry of beggars in the compartment, chain pulling by local commuters, entry of local commuters in reserved compartment, goondaism by local commuters, unhygienic serving of food by pantry car staff, no sufficient provision for local commuters, no pantry car in some long route trains, improper lighting facilities, smoking and alcoholic use by co-passengers, unhygienic matters supplied in the A/ C compartment and no provision for senior citizens.


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Similarly the various attributes at railway stations are – monopoly by coolie, no adequate maintenance of toilets, no water facilities in toilets, unhygienic of platform tracks, unauthorised entry by local people at the stations and unhygienic food at stations. In this regard we have been assigned as +3, +2,+1,0 and -1 for the responses of the respondents- Completely agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree and Completely disagree respectively. Final scores for each feature are calculated by multiplying the number of responses by the weights of the corresponding responses. Calculation of Respondents’ Perception: Ideal and Least Scores Ideal scores are calculated by multiplying the number of respondents in each category with (+3) and product with total number of attributes. Least scores calculated by multiplying the number of respondents each category with (-1) and the product with number of attributes in questionnaires. Table 2 Computation of ideal score and least scores for the respondents Category

Equation

Ideal score

Equation

Least score

Male passengers Female passengers Male visitors to the station Female visitors to the station Male vendors Female vendors

148 × 3 × 24 104 × 3 × 24 39 × 3 × 24 38 × 3 × 24 33 × 3 × 24 22 × 3 × 24

10,656 7,488 2,808 2,736 2,376 1,584

148 × –1 × 24 104 × –1 × 24 39 × –1 × 24 38 × –1 × 24 33 × –1 × 24 22 × –1 × 24

–3,552 –2,496 –936 –912 –792 –528

Findings of the Study Findings of the study are as under. The table 3 shows that in the present case the total actual scores of male and female respondents for passengers, visitors and vendors are 8589, 6736, 2349, 2382, 1931 and 1331, as against the ideal score of 10,656, 7488, 2808, 2736, 2376 and 1584. The percentage of actual score are 80.60, 89.95, 83.65, 87.06 ,81.31 and 84.02 respectively. In no case the actual score touching the least score. The perception level is more in case of female passengers, followed by female visitors to the station and female vendors. This shows that the perception is not so favourable by female respondents as compared to male counterpart. This shows that majority are not happy with the existing services provided by the railways during the travel and also the services at station also. CONCLUDING NOTE The present paper gives the real pictorial scenario of railways in India. No doubt the various initiatives taken by the new government is in positive direction but we cannot ignore the ground reality. The majority commuters are poor, lower middle class and

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Dr. Ipseeta Satpathy D.Litt, Dr. B.C.M. Patnaik and Mr. Sourav Mohanty Table 3 Response of the respondents Aggregate Score Passengers Visitors to the station Vendors Male

Female

Attributes/variables

Male

Female Male

Female

During Travel

Unhygienic condition in compartments Shortage of drinking water Unhygienic condition in toilets Shortage of water in toilets Unscheduled stoppages No security personal during travel Unauthorised entry of local vendors Unauthorised entry of beggars in the compartment Chain pulling by local commuters Entry of local commuters in reserved compartment Goondaism by local commuters Unhygienic serving of food by pantry car staff No sufficient provision for local commuters No pantry car in some long route trains Improper lighting facilities Smoking and alcoholic use by co-passengers Unhygienic matters supplied in the A/C compartment No provision for senior citizens Condition at railway stations Monopoly by coolie No adequate maintenance of toilets No water facilities in toilets, Unhygienic of platform tracks Unauthorised entry by local people at the stations Unhygienic food at stations

351 331 338 330 324 347 369 370 360 373 313 366 391 359 310 338 356 383

280 293 270 263 281 293 253 279 265 266 291 302 285 285 270 282 272 287

99 91 86 103 101 98 85 105 99 95 91 102 105 102 87 95 91 99

98 96 103 87 99 99 89 92 103 106 109 103 96 96 93 95 99 105

82 87 84 84 70 70 83 83 93 85 88 86 91 82 79 76 69 79

60 56 61 50 61 54 48 49 54 59 58 57 48 56 57 62 57 60

395 383 396 419 339 348

296 275 269 309 288 282

92 103 105 111 104 100

108 99 97 109 98 103

82 83 80 72 82 61

52 55 54 60 53 50

Total Score

8,589

6,736

2,349

2,382

1,931 1,331

Ideal Score

10,656

7,488

2,808

2,736

2,376 1,584

% of total score to ideal score

80.60

89.95

83.65

87.06

81.31 84.02

Least Score

–3,552

–2,496

–936

–912

–792

–528

No. of respondents

148

104

39

38

33

22

Source: Annexure A, B, C, D, E and F

middle class people. No doubt the facilities are better in air condition compartments or high class compartments and everyone cannot travel or afford the same. It is time to revisit the existing facility and improve the service quality to the passengers. Most of the time due to internal dynamics of central government the political leaders prefer to give more facility to their respective states and in the process other states are being sidelined. We hope that adequate care will be taken to upgrade the services. It is also


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Source: Table 3

found that some services need to be out sourced and also there should be change in mind set of people to maintain cleanliness in the compartments; ofcourse the –Swachh Bharat movement will create some awareness among the people in this direction. The commuters also need to show their accountability in addition to improve the quality of services by the railways. This will give an opportunity to improve the services in the Indian railways. References Geetika, Shefali Nandan. (2010), (Determination of Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality: A study on Railway platforms in India), Journal of Public Transportation, vol 13, No.1, . Anuradha, J–(A study on Passengers satisfaction towards Railway passengers in Erode Junction), International Journal of Management (IJM), Volume 5, Issue 8, August 2014, pp 10-15, ISSN:0796:6502 (Print), ISSN:0796:6510 (Online). Rajeshwari, G and Elangovan, D–(Problems faced by the passengers of Indian Railways-A study in Salem Division of Southern Railway Zone), Global Institute for Research and Education, vol 3(4), ISSN:2319-7285. Nag, Barnali, Kulshrestha, Mudit and Kulshrestha, Mukul (2001), (A multivariant cointegrating vector auto regressive model of freight transfer demand: evidence from Indian Railways), Transportation Research Part A 35, 29-45, July 7, 1999. Ramanathan, R (2001), (The long-run behavior of transport performance in India-A cointegrating Approach), Transportation Research Part A 35, 309-320, November 4, 1999. Kraft, Edwin R (2002), (Scheduling railway freight delivery appointments using a bid price approach), Transportation Research Part A 36, 145-165, July 31, 2000. 7.Anghinolfi, D, Paulocci, M, Sacone, S and Siri, S, (2011), (Freight Transportation in railway networks with automated terminals–A mathematical model and MIP heuristic Approaches), European Journal of Operational Research, 214, 588-594, May 17, 2011.

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ANNEXURE–A (148) Perception of male passengers Attributes / variables

CA(+3)

A(+2) N(1)

DA(0)

CDA(–1) Score

During Travel Unhygienic condition in compartments Shortage of drinking water Unhygienic condition in toilets Shortage of water in toilets Unscheduled stoppages No security personal during travel Unauthorised entry of local vendors Unauthorised entry of beggars in the compartment Chain pulling by local commuters Entry of local commuters in reserved compartment Goondaism by local commuters Unhygienic serving of food by pantry car staff No sufficient provision for local commuters No pantry car in some long route trains Improper lighting facilities Smoking and alcoholic use by co-passengers Unhygienic matters supplied in the A/C compartment No provision for senior citizens

96 87 94 85 86 92 101 103 96 111 89 104 112 99 84 95 103 112

31 34 26 34 29 32 29 28 36 22 23 26 27 32 24 24 18 21

8 9 12 15 18 12 10 8 5 4 14 8 3 5 21 13 15 8

6 11 8 6 5 7 6 6 6 3 8 4 4 5 8 8 8 4

7 7 8 8 10 5 2 3 5 8 14 6 2 7 11 8 4 3

351 331 338 330 324 347 369 370 360 373 313 366 391 359 310 338 356 383

Condition at railway stations Monopoly by coolie No adequate maintenance of toilets No water facilities in toilets, Unhygienic of platform tracks Unauthorised entry by local people at the stations Unhygienic food at stations

116 112 117 124 99 102

23 25 22 23 22 18

4 3 3 1 8 14

2 2 4 0 9 6

3 6 2 0 10 8

395 383 396 419 339 348

Sources:Compiled from field survey, CA-Completely agree, A-Agree, N-Neutral, DA-Disagree, CDA -Completely disagree

ANNEXURE–B (104) Perception of female passengers Attributes / variables

CA(+3)

A(+2) N(1)

DA(0)

CDA(–1) Score

During Travel Unhygienic condition in compartments Shortage of drinking water Unhygienic condition in toilets Shortage of water in toilets Unscheduled stoppages No security personal during travel Unauthorised entry of local vendors Unauthorised entry of beggars in the compartment Chain pulling by local commuters

86 89 85 84 91 93 79 85 81

10 11 8 5 4 6 8 11 10

2 0 4 8 3 3 5 2 5

2 0 4 3 3 0 6 2 3

4 4 3 4 3 2 6 4 5

280 293 270 263 281 293 253 279 265

Cont. Annexure-B (104)


741 Perception of female passengers

Attributes / variables

CA(+3)

A(+2) N(1)

DA(0)

CDA(–1) Score

During Travel Entry of local commuters in reserved compartment Goondaism by local commuters Unhygienic serving of food by pantry car staff No sufficient provision for local commuters No pantry car in some long route trains Improper lighting facilities Smoking and alcoholic use by co-passengers Unhygienic matters supplied in the A/C compartment No provision for senior citizens

82 91 96 91 90 86 88 85 92

9 8 6 5 6 7 9 8 5

6 2 2 4 3 3 2 4 2

3 3 0 2 5 3 3 4 4

4 0 0 2 0 5 2 3 1

266 291 302 285 285 270 282 272 287


95 91 87 101 94 92

4 2 4 3 2 3

3 3 4 0 4 3

2 3 5 0 2 3

0 5 4 0 2 3

296 275 269 309 288 282

Sources:Compiled from field survey, CA-Completely agree, A-Agree, N-Neutral, DA-Disagree, CDA-Completely disagree

ANNEXURE–C (39) Perception of male visitors to the station Attributes / variables

CA(+3)

A(+2) N(1)

DA(0)

CDA(–1) Score


28 27 26 31 32 29 25 31 30 28 27 30 32 31 24 26 28 27

6 5 3 4 2 6 5 5 4 6 4 5 3 3 6 7 4 8

2 3 4 2 2 1 3 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 3 2 2

0 2 2 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 3 0

3 2 4 2 2 1 3 2 2 1 4 2 3 3 5 3 2 2

99 91 86 103 101 98 85 105 99 95 91 102 105 102 87 95 91 99

Cont. Annexure-C (39)

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Dr. Ipseeta Satpathy D.Litt, Dr. B.C.M. Patnaik and Mr. Sourav Mohanty Perception of male visitors to the station


CA(+3)

A(+2) N(1)

DA(0)

CDA(–1) Score


29 31 32 35 31 30

3 4 2 2 4 5

2 0 2 0 1 0

3 0 0 0 0 2

2 4 3 2 3 2

92 105 103 111 104 100


ANNEXURE–D (38) Perception of female visitors to the station Attributes / variables

CA(+3)

A(+2) N(1)

DA(0)

CDA(–1) Score


29 28 31 26 30 29 25 24 31 33 34 31 29 28 27 28 30 32

4 5 4 3 3 5 6 8 4 2 3 3 3 4 5 4 4 3

3 2 2 4 3 2 3 4 2 3 1 4 3 4 2 3 2 3

2 3 1 4 2 2 3 2 1 0 0 0 3 2 4 3 1 0

0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

98 96 103 87 99 99 89 92 103 106 109 103 96 96 93 95 99 105


34 31 29 34 30 31

2 3 4 3 3 3

2 0 2 1 2 4

0 4 3 0 3 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

108 99 97 109 98 103

Sources:Compiled from field survey, CA- Completely agree, A- Agree, N-Neutral, DA-Disagree, CDA-Completely disagree


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ANNEXURE–E (33) Perception of male vendors Attributes / variables

CA(+3)

A(+2) N(1)

DA(0)

CDA(–1) Score


23 24 25 26 21 22 24 24 27 25 26 25 28 24 22 20 21 22

5 6 4 2 4 3 4 5 6 3 3 4 2 4 5 6 3 4

3 3 1 2 2 2 3 1 0 4 4 3 3 2 3 4 3 5

2 0 3 3 3 2 2 3 0 1 0 1 0 3 3 3 3 2

0 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0

82 87 84 84 70 70 83 83 93 85 88 86 91 82 79 76 69 79


24 25 23 22 23 18

4 3 4 3 5 4

2 2 3 2 3 3

3 3 3 4 2 4

0 0 0 2 0 4

82 83 80 72 82 61


ANNEXURE–F (22) Perception of female vendors Attributes / variables

CA(+3)

A(+2) N(1)

DA(0)

CDA(–1) Score

During Travel Unhygienic condition in compartments Shortage of drinking water Unhygienic condition in toilets Shortage of water in toilets Unscheduled stoppages No security personal during travel Unauthorised entry of local vendors Unauthorised entry of beggars in the compartment Chain pulling by local commuters

17 16 18 15 19 16 14 13 14

4 2 3 2 2 3 2 3 4

0 0 0 2 1 3 4 2 0

0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

1 4 1 2 0 0 2 4 4

60 56 61 50 61 54 48 49 54

Cont. Annexure-F (22)

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Dr. Ipseeta Satpathy D.Litt, Dr. B.C.M. Patnaik and Mr. Sourav Mohanty Perception of female vendors


CA(+3)

A(+2) N(1)

DA(0)

CDA(–1) Score

During Travel Entry of local commuters in reserved compartment Goondaism by local commuters Unhygienic serving of food by pantry car staff No sufficient provision for local commuters No pantry car in some long route trains Improper lighting facilities Smoking and alcoholic use by co-passengers Unhygienic matters supplied in the A/C compartment No provision for senior citizens

16 18 19 14 15 17 19 15 18

5 2 1 3 4 3 2 5 2

1 0 0 2 3 0 1 2 2

0 2 0 1 0 2 0 0 0

0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0

59 58 57 48 56 57 62 57 60


14 15 14 18 14 15

3 5 4 2 3 1

4 0 4 2 5 3

1 2 0 0 0 3

0 0 0 0 0 0

52 55 54 60 53 50
